THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF INDONESIA

THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF INDONESIA

In recent decades ,Indonesia has been viewed as one of southeast Asia’s succesful highly performing and newly industrializing economies, following the trail of the asean tigers(hongkong,singapore,south korea and taiwan).                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Indonesia is situated in southeastern Asia and consist of a large archipelago between the Indian Ocean and the pacifik Ocean,with more than 13.000 Islands.Apart from fertile land suitable for agriculture,Indonesia is rich ibn a range of natural resources,varying from potrileum,natural gas and coal to metals such as tin ,bauxite,nickel,copper,gold and silver.

Anne both has characterized the economic history of Indonesia with the somewhat melancholy phrase ”a history of missed opportunities “(booth 1998).the caused by internal institutional or political spheres (either after independence or in colonial times),altoughly external influences such as the 1930s depression also had their ill-fated impact on the vulnerable export-economy.

A Chronological survey of indonesia Economic History

a.The precolonial economy

b.Sixteenth and seventeenth century                                                                                                                                                           Present-day research by scholars in pre-colonial economic history focuses on the dynamics of early-modern trade and pays specific attention to the role different ethnic groups such as the Arabs,the chinese and the various indigenous groups of traders and entrepreneurs.

During the eighteenth century,VOC  was  a sucessful enterprise and made large dividend payments to its shareholders.                                                                                                                                                                                                

c.The nineteenth century                                                                                                                                                                               In the nineteenth century  a process of more intensive colonization started ,predominantly in java ,where the cultivation system (1830-1870)was based (Elson1994;fasseur 1975).

d.The heyday of the colonial export economy(1900-1942)                                                                                                                After 1870 ,private enterprise was promoted but the exports of raw materials gained decisive momentum after 1900.in thye aearly twentieth century,the production of oil was increasingly concentrated in the hands of the koninklijke/shell group.

The Deppresion of the 1930s  hit the export economy severaly.the sugar industry in java collapsed and could  not really recover from the crisis.

e.The post-1945 period                                                                                                                                                                                        After independence ,the Indonesian economy had to recover from the hardship of the japanese occupation and the war for independence (1945-1949),on top of slow recovery from the 1930s Depression.                                                                                                                                                                                                                      After 1966 ,the second president ,general soeharto,restored the inflow of western capital,brought back political stability with a strong role for the army,and led indonesia into a period  of economic  expansion under  his authoritarian new order until 1997.                                                                                                                                             The financial crisis in 1997 revealed a number of hidden weaknesses in the economy.                                                     F.From 1998 until present.                                                                                                                                                                                  Today,the indonesian economy still suffers from severe economic development problems following the financial crisis of 1997 and the subsequent political reforms  after soeharto stepped down in 1998.